(C) South Dakota Searchlight
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America's decade-long experience with marijuana legalization shows it to be a success • South Dakota Searchlight [1]
['Paul Armentano', 'Dave Dickey', 'Investigate Midwest', 'Dana Hess', 'Tom Dean', 'More From Author', 'August', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus']
Date: 2024-08-28
Contributor Tom Dean urges “we go slow” and put the brakes on efforts to legalize and regulate marijuana use (“More research needed on health effects of recreational marijuana,” Aug. 23). For those of us who have spent decades working to end over a century of marijuana prohibition and stigmatization, these changes cannot come soon enough.
The initial push for cannabis criminalization, which began in earnest in the early 1900s, had little to do with any legitimate concerns about public health or safety. Rather, the move to ban marijuana and to criminally prosecute those who consume it was based primarily upon myths and xenophobia. In many cases, these myths have persisted through modern day – resulting in the arrest of an estimated 30 million Americans for marijuana-related violations.
By 2012, however, the public had heard and seen enough. That’s when voters in Colorado and Washington decided in favor of citizen-initiated ballot measures legalizing and regulating the adult use, possession, production and sale of cannabis.
Contrary to opponents’ claims, legalizing marijuana did not increase crime. States that have legalized cannabis see improvements in their overall crime clearance rates, including improvements in law enforcement’s ability to close cases involving violent crimes.
Legalization is also associated with declines in teens’ marijuana use. According to data recently provided by the government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the percentage of those ages 12 to 17 who reported having ever tried marijuana fell 18% from 2014 to 2023 . Those reporting having consumed cannabis during the past year fell 15%. The percentage of teens reporting current marijuana use fell by 19%.
Compliance check data from California, Colorado, Nevada and other legal marijuana states show that licensed marijuana retailers do not sell products to underage patrons.
Let’s be clear. Legalization doesn’t create or normalize the marijuana market. The market is already here. But under a policy of prohibition, this market flourishes underground — and those involved in it are largely unaccountable. They don’t pay taxes, they don’t check IDs and they don’t test the purity of their products.
By contrast, under regulation, cannabis products are available from licensed manufacturers at retail stores. Cannabis is cultivated, and products are manufactured, in accordance with good manufacturing practices. Products are lab-tested and labeled accordingly. And sales are taxed, with revenues being reinvested in the community. Since 2014, retail sales of adult-use cannabis products have generated more than $15 billion in tax revenue.
Legalization also disrupts the unregulated cannabis market. According to 2023 survey data, most consumers residing in legal states say that they obtain their cannabis products from licensed establishments. By contrast, only 6% of respondents say that they primarily purchased cannabis from a “dealer.” In Canada, where marijuana sales have been regulated since 2018, nearly 70% of consumers say that they purchase cannabis from the legal market.
Today, 24 states and the District of Columbia have adopted policies regulating adults’ use of cannabis. No legislature has ever repealed their laws. Nationwide, public support for legalization has never been higher. This is evidence that these policies are working largely as voters and politicians intended and that they are preferable to cannabis criminalization.
After a century of failed policies and canna-bigotry, most Americans are ready to move in a different direction – one that legalizes, regulates and educates.
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